> >I skip the parts where the hero tell all about
his/her political agenda,
the
> >plight of the homeless, how her/his grandmother
saved him/her from
> >alcoholism, how his/her buddy married "the
girl/guy," and all the parts
> >about how he/she "feels." (Being PC can get
tedious)
>
>Sorry, but bitching about the evils of
> political correctness, especially when it has
nothing to do with the
> topic at hand, is what's really tedious.
But I believe there is a crop of crime writing in the 90s
that seems to latch on to the type of bestseller pop-psych
therapy ideas mentioned above, which isn't really as PC as it
is a bow towards 1) A market that eats up simple answers to
deep questions of existence, and 2) A mainstream which likes
big emotions, big symbols, big metaphor.....
So then, we've got a blockbuster/mainstream mentality putting
on a hardboiled coat and passing itself off as the real
thing. The books with nuance of character, things that
surprise us, things that don't tend toward a "herd
mentality", those books don't get the attention and sales,
even though they are just better books.
Sometimes, some of the Real Thing gets attention, like
Lehane's work, and Pelecanos (speaking of which, a fine
interview of them together on the website for Crescent Blue
Magazine. I don't have the exact URL right now), Ellroy, etc.
But what really gets USA Today notice and People magazine
notice are the books that don't challenge as much as confirm
the things American society finds interesting right
now.
I guess I'm thinking of this because I'm slogging through
Freud right now as well, and am finding I think he's full of
crap (as most people have already figured out, but why they
hold on to him so tightly in Lit Crit circles...my guess:
easier to analyze with a system like that than deal with the
possible realization that there ain't no rhyme or
reason).
Neil Smith Plots With Guns (http://www2.netdoor.com/~ansmith)
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